Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara could both win major awards this season.

By Dan CagenDaily News staff

March 31, 2014
6:22 p.m.

With less than two weeks remaining in the regular season, it's time to spend some serious time thinking about the NHL awards.

With the Bruins dominating since the Olympic break and moving to the top of the NHL standings, they have candidates who will receive votes for every major award. At least three Bruins will receive Hart votes, and that’s not considering that players like David Krejci and Jarome Iginla may pick up a spare vote or two.

It's not all that hard to figure out why the Bruins would be loved in the awards — they score the third-most goals and allow the fewest. They will be the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and may finish with the league’s best record. These are the good old days for the Bruins.

So let’s go through the awards races with a breakdown of the contenders and where the Bruins stand.

(Note: I am a PHWA member and vote for the awards, except for the Vezina and Jack Adams, which are decided by the general managers and broadcasters, respectively. This is not a final ballot, but a breakdown of how things stand as of March 31. Ballots are due before the playoffs, and opinions could change before then. I'll publish my ballot sometime before the NHL's awards show in June.

It’s also worth noting that the voting for the PHWA is inherently flawed and can result in some weird votes. Although generally the awards go to the right players (yes, there are some questionable ones, but mostly the winner is deserved), there are some funky ballots. Tyler Seguin got Selke votes a couple years ago, and even he laughed about it.

Unlike baseball, there is no limit on the number of ballots from one city, so there will be far more ballots cast from Toronto, Boston and Pittsburgh addresses than Nashville or Phoenix. It’s also ridiculously easy to get a ballot — pay $35 and you’re in. There were 179 voters last season. There was discussion of changes after the embarrassment of Alex Ovechkin being named a first and second-team all-star last season, but it’s the same format this year.)

Hart Trophy

Let's be honest here — this is Sidney Crosby's trophy. For lots of reasons.

Crosby leads the NHL with 99 points — 18 more than Ryan Getzlaf — and is fourth in goals with 36 after two in the third period Sunday against Chicago. As WEEI.com broke down, forwards who have won the Hart in the last 20 years have been in the top three in either goals or points every time.

By that standard, the only contenders among forwards for the award are Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Corey Perry, Joe Pavelski, Getzlaf and Claude Giroux. Ovechkin and Perry are previous Hart winners, but aren’t contenders this time. Pavelski has so many good teammates he probably won’t finish in the top five. Getzlaf and Giroux could definitely be finalists.

Crosby has plenty of bullet points beside the points, though. For one, he's the best player in the game and hasn't won the award in seven years, a rather stunning drought even when factoring in that he essentially missed two seasons due to concussions. Even though he won the Hart in 2006-07 as a second-year player, there may be a feeling that he's due.

More importantly, he's been the constant on a Pittsburgh team that will win the Metropolitan Division despite what could’ve been crippling injuries to Pascal Dupuis, Kris Letang and Paul Martin, as well as a recent ailment to Evgeni Malkin. If Crosby wasn't the dominant force he's been, the Penguins have nowhere near a 101-point season.

There are arguments to be made for three Bruins to get votes. Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask could all get their name on writers' ballots.

Momentum is building for Bergeron after Pierre McGuire all but handed out campaign flyers for the Bruins center during Sunday's nationally televised game in Philadelphia. Bergeron has built an argument on his all-around game, and his seven-game goal streak — the longest by a Bruin in nearly 30 years — is more evidence that he's much more than a faceoff specialist.

While Bergeron's value to the Bruins is immense — when he missed six games last season with a concussion, the Bruins were outshot by a 5.4 percent, a 12.9 shot per game decrease from when Bergeron played — it's just difficult to say he actually is as valuable as Crosby. Bergeron is third among forwards on the team in ice time.

Chara and Rask are doomed by their positions. Only one defenseman has won the Hart since Bobby Orr won his third in 1972 (Chris Pronger with the Blues in 2000), and Chara won't change that trend. Rask has been enormous (more on him below), but it's hard to imagine that he'll win the Hart when Tim Thomas was fifth three years ago after the best season in the history of goaltending.

The guess here is Bergeron is in the top 10 for voting, but Crosby will be a near-unanimous choice.

Norris Trophy

This is a fascinating race, and it's hard to say whether there's a right answer.

Chara is among a handful of candidates for this, which would be his second Norris Trophy after winning it five years ago.

By many calculations, Chara is the best defensive defenseman in the league, or at least in the top three. He averages big-time minutes (24:45 of ice time per game), starts fewer than 50 percent of his even-strength shifts in the offensive zone (47.3 percent) and has one of the highest Corsi ratings for shutdown defensemen (9.95).

Then Chara has a couple arguments he couldn't make in the last few seasons. One is he's had to take on more responsibility as the Bruins have shifted to a younger defensive core. Andrew Ference was not re-signed, then Dennis Seidenberg and Adam McQuaid were lost long-term to injury. Claude Julien could previously rely on a second pairing with Seidenberg and Johnny Boychuk or Ference in the regular season, but that hasn't been possible this season. Chara has had to carry more of the Spoked-B on his big shoulders than ever before.

There's also the big man's offense. In the last couple years, the Norris has gone to the best offensive defenseman, Erik Karlsson in 2012 and P.K. Subban in 2013. Neither was their team's best option in the defensive zone, but the offensive numbers were shiny enough to convince voters they deserved the award. While Chara is only 24th among defensemen in points, his 17 goals rank him third among players who have played the entire season as a blue liner (Dustin Byfuglien, now playing as a power forward, has 20). Ten of Chara's goals have come on the power play, and the overall total is just two short of his total in his 2008-09 Norris season.

One argument against Chara for voters could be competition from his own team, however. Bergeron and Rask could already have their names written in the top spot for the Selke and Vezina — could some voters have Bruins fatigue? It also plays into a thought that if the Bruins have the best goalie and best defensive forward, is Chara the best defenseman too? (That's a ridiculous argument, but it's already been made by some.)

But this is a fascinating race, and although Chara might be worthy in many years, there are several candidates who deserve consideration this season. Alex Pietrangelo, Drew Doughty and Shea Weber are all defense-first players on elite defensive teams that play a ton of minutes against tough competition and chip in offensively as well.

Weber in particular may warrant extra consideration considering he begins less than 45 percent of his even-strength shifts in the defensive zone, yet leads NHL defensemen with 21 goals (11 on the power play). It also could help his case that he's a multiple-time finalist with no Norris hardware in his trophy case, although Nashville's standing as a non-playoff team may hurt him.

Pietrangelo has been the best defenseman on a St. Louis team that's been dominant defensively since Day 1, and is probably the only major trophy contender for a club that could win the President's Trophy. He's a true two-way player with 50 points. There'd be no shame in handing him the award.

Out in Los Angeles, Doughty is also an elite defense-first player, although he may not have the arguments of the others this season. Doughty has started over 55 percent of his even-strength shifts in the offensive zone and his 35 points are below his rivals.

The most intriguing case may belong to another former Norris winner, Duncan Keith. When Keith won the Norris in 2009-10, he was the Blackhawks' clear-cut No. 1 defenseman. He played against top lines and was the quarterback of a Stanley Cup-winning offense.

But the last couple years have seen the rise of Chicago's No. 2 defensive pair of Niklas Hjalmarsson and Johnny Oduya, who have taken on the role of playing opponents' top forwards.

“I think the last couple years they've absorbed some of that quality ice time against top lines,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said of the Ouyda-Hjalmarsson pairing when the Blackhawks came to town last week. “It seems like a lot of teams on a game-to-game basis have a couple lines that you want to check and you want to play them against. We're comfortable either way [with our top two pairs].”

That's allowed Keith and partner Brent Seabrook to be used in a more offensive role. Keith leads NHL blue liners with 51 assists and is the engine for the fastest team this side of Sochi. Yet he's not asked to do as much as four years ago. Should he be punished because the Hawks are a ridiculously deep team?

So Chara could win this, but there is a ton of competition.

Vezina Trophy

It's hard to see a scenario where the Bruins do not win their third Vezina in five years. Tuukka Rask has been that good for a while now.

Rask leads the NHL in shutouts (seven) and is on top among goalies with 40-plus starts in GAA (2.02) and save percentage (.931). He's also far and away the leader in even-strength save percentage among the 40-plus guys at .943; if the Bruins' penalty kill hadn't collapsed for a couple weeks after Dennis Seidenberg's season-ending injury, Rask's overall numbers would be that much better.

At 54 games, Rask is only 11th, but that shouldn't be enough to work against him. Basically every NHL person seems to be in agreement on this.

Of course, the general managers are the ones voting, and although they usually get this right, who knows what they're thinking?

Jack Adams Award

Another one where there's no clear frontrunner, but a lot of solid candidates.

Arguments can be made for Dan Bylsma, Jon Cooper, Ken Hitchcock and Patrick Roy, as well as, yes, Claude Julien.

The bullet points for the candidates:

- Bylsma has kept afloat a team that lost several players from last season, then was crippled by injuries to Pascal Dupuis, Kris Letang and Paul Martin. The Pens played remarkably well in December, January and February. Although they've trailed off lately, Pittsburgh will cruise to the Metropolitan title.

- In Tampa, Cooper — in his first full year behind the bench — turned the Lightning into a good defensive team, imported two rookies into big roles, withstood the loss of Steven Stamkos for nearly four months, then had to deal with the controversy and eventual trade of new captain Martin St. Louis. The Bolts could finish second in the Atlantic.

- Hitchcock won the Adams two years ago, and the Blues have made the push from playoff team to the best in the West. Hitchcock deserves credit for the development of players like Vladimir Sobotka and getting a career year out of Alex Steen.

- After years in the QMJHL, Roy took over the bumbling Avalanche and got them to play to their strengths — they've become a fast, dangerous team that's fun to watch. They're a young team with Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon, but have had just one streak of three regulation losses in a row, that in November.

- In Boston, Julien has a powerhouse, but also a team that's considerably younger than usual and has had to withstand injuries. In some aspects Julien is just pushing the button on the conveyor belt with players like Bergeron, Chara, David Krejci, etc., but he deserves credit for the development of the young defensemen as well as the second half Carl Soderberg has had.

Again, it's the broadcasters who vote for this one, so thoughts here are just thoughts, but the guess is Julien's team is too good for him to win. Look for Roy to take it.

Selke Trophy

After winning two years ago, Bergeron could add this to his ever-growing trophy case.

Statistically, he makes a compelling case. He leads the league in plus/minus (plus-36) and is sixth in Corsi (plus-23.67). He's the best in faceoffs among those with over 1,000 draws at 58.7 percent. He leads Boston forwards in shorthanded ice time per game at 2:01. Offensively, the red-hot center has 27 goals and 56 points, including 7-3—10 totals on the power play.

The eye test also reveals Bergeron is a dominant two-way player. He always draws the other team's best player. In times of need, Bergeron carries a little more, like Sunday when he played two big shifts when the Bruins were down two men for 1:47 in the third period. Islanders star John Tavares said in January that Bergeron is the hardest player to play against in the league.

All that could put Bergeron at the top of many lists. But will it be enough? Bergeron had the most first-place votes last year, but lost out to Jonathan Toews by 10 points.

Toews is again competition this year, but like his teammate Keith in the Norris race, he may be hurt in the voting by his role on the team. Toews is more like a true No. 1 center this season than a traditional two-way player. The Blackhawks don't have depth down the middle like the Bruins have with David Krejci and Carl Soderberg, so Toews has to score; he starts 63.7 percent of his shifts, far higher than Bergeron's 45.8 percent. That helps to explains how Toews has 68 points, 12 more than Bergeron.

It's not to say Toews is a lesser defensive player than Bergeron — although one can argue that based on the eyeball test — but that Toews just simply isn’t asked to do as much on both ends of the ice as Bergeron.

Yet Toews might not be Bergeron's best competition. That would be Anze Kopitar, who was fourth in the Selke voting last year (Pavel Datsyuk, who finished third, has missed too many games to be considered this year.)

Kopitar is the Kings' leading scorer with 62 points. He plays over 21 minutes per night, is a plus-28, wins 53.3 percent of his faceoffs, has nine power-play goals, is second among Los Angeles forwards in shorthanded ice time, starts 54.3 percent of his even-strength shifts in the offensive zone and leads the NHL in Corsi at 26.66. Kopitar is just as tough, strong and disciplined as Bergeron, and the Kings' playoff success in the last two years could help him as his profile has risen in the last few years.

David Backes is the other serious candidate, and someone who deserves mention for votes, if not consideration for the actual award, is Tomas Plekanec.

A little more time is needed here to decide who to give the first-place vote to, but the guess is Bergeron wins for the second time in three years. It’ll be close.

Calder Trophy

Like the Hart Trophy, this is all locked up. Nathan MacKinnon has followed being the No. 1 pick in the draft with being the best rookie in the league.

MacKinnon has 23 goals and 56 points as the No. 2 center for a really good Avalanche team. He's displaced veteran centers because Patrick Roy quickly realized MacKinnon had to play there.

The Lightning have a couple interesting candidates in Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson. Perhaps they'll nullify votes for each other.

That could open a spot for Torey Krug to be a Calder finalist. Krug leads rookie defensemen with 14 goals and 37 points and his work has been critical in turning Boston's power play into a top-10 unit.

The arguments against Krug will be that he is the most sheltered player in the league, starting 66.3 percent of his even-strength shifts in the defensive zone. That’s the highest rate in the league among blue liners.

To these eyes, Krug isn't even the best rookie defenseman in the league. That's Pittsburgh's Olli Maatta, who was rushed into action far sooner than the Penguins would have preferred due to injuries and has handled the responsibilities. He starts 50.8 percent of his even-strength shifts in the offensive zone, yet has a positive Corsi and is plus-10.